Summary

Book 3 goes back in time and recounts Ray’s experience since he left Luz and Ig. He marches onward and onward through the desert, keeping the dune at his back, using the starlet’s scarf to help him breathe. We then go further back in time to the army, to Lonnie’s complex, to his childhood. We watch him use his satchel to sleep at night on the sand. He is awoken from dreams of his family to the sound of an engine. He flails his arms, begging a passing vehicle to stop. The jeep rams right into him, knocking him out.

At dawn, two rangers give him water and instruct him to get in their truck. He frantically shouts that they’re driving the wrong way—that his girl and child are back the other direction, and he needs to return to...